Cal State San Marcos police Chief Scott Ybarrondo may be new to running a college police department, but he’s no rookie — and certainly not a stranger to the community.

For years, Ybarrondo was the captain leading the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s San Marcos station, and was at the helm when the Cocos fire started in the hills behind the university on a hot, windy day in May 2014.

He was happy with his career and never thought the university gig was something he wanted — until it came open.

“I wasn't looking to leave the sheriff’s department (and) wasn’t looking for chief of police jobs,” Ybarrondo said. But “when the opportunity came up, I did some soul searching.”

He and university officials soon agreed it was a great fit.

After 26 years with the Sheriff’s Department, Ybarrondo retired in mid-June to take the campus post. He was sworn in Tuesday, replacing retired campus police Chief Robert McManus.

Neal Hoss, the school’s vice president of finance and administrative services, said there was “universal support across the campus” when it came to hiring Ybarrondo.

“He’s got the experience for the job,” Hoss said. “He’s got the head for the job. But really for us, he’s got the heart.”

As the San Marcos sheriff’s captain, Ybarrondo led more than 100 sworn deputies in a city with 95,000 residents, and also oversaw operations at the Valley Center substation.

At the university, he’ll lead a department with 19 sworn officers who over the past year responded to more than 17,200 incidents, and made a total of 72 arrests. The most reported campus crimes are hit-and-run, petty theft and vandalism.

Enrollment at the 27-year-old university is roughly 15,000 students and continues to grow, as more campus buildings and services have opened in the past several years. Nearby, a $1 billion development project is transforming that area into an urban village with housing, offices and entertainment.

Ybarrondo said his biggest concern would be the threat of an active shooter on school grounds, but he’s also focused on preventing sexual assault on college campuses.

Law enforcement is in Ybarrondo’s DNA — he’s got two uncles and a cousin who have carried a badge.

He joined the Sheriff’s Department when he was 26, and early in his career worked in the county jails and as a patrol deputy. He later taught at the sheriff’s academy and ran the border-crimes task force.

His most recent sheriff’s assignment put him in charge of emergency services — SWAT, the bomb squad, the helicopter fleet, the search and rescue unit — to respond to events from wildfires to civil unrest.

In his free time, Ybarrondo runs marathons, a sport he took up in his 30s. He’s done seven of them now, including the New York City Marathon, which he ran in less than four and a half hours. This goal these days is to run one in under four hours.

Ybarrondo said he is “really looking forward” to the job.

“I am really committed to the safety of the campus,” he said. “In some regards, it’s smaller than what I was doing before, but it’s not lost on me that I am in charge of (the safety of) everybody on that campus. I take that very seriously.”